A New Era of Pranks
by brigitwritesstuff
Summary: Moses and Aaron didn't get to play together as children. Thankfully, they never outgrew playing.
1. Chapter 1 - Aaron

I didn't live under a rock when I was younger (though I might as well have). I heard everything about Moses and Ramses' little pranks. Before the ten commandments I might of denied it, but I cannot lie; I wish it had been me doing brotherly things with him.

But those times are over, and for the rest of our lives it will be my turn. He and I love the Hebrew people, but it is extremely fun to mess with them. He taught me that if you put your thumb between your middle and index fingers you can convince children that you've "got their nose". The children got us back for that by putting beetles in our robes. At least we know that the future of our people is in clever hands.

Next we would prank Miriam and Tzipporah. The two were best buddies and would stay in the same tent all day on Sundays chatting. Some nights they would keep talking until they both just fell asleep right there on the ground. Moses and I snuck in and braided their hair together. I had a hard time keeping my laughter at bay. "Shhh! You'll wake them up!" Moses whispered, smiling. I still giggled uncontrolably, so he put his hand over my mouth and got us out of the tent. When we were far enough away, we burst out in laughter. I hadn't been that happy in a while.

In the morning we heard them. "Ouch!" "Tzipporah, let go of my hair!" "I'm not touching your hair!" Moses shook me awake, grinning.

"Aaron, we have to go before-"

Interrupting his sentence was Miriam in the entry of our tent, Tzipporah in tow and heads still attached. She took Moses by the earlobe. "Hey, ow!" He protested.

"Moses, undo this!"

"But Aaron did it too!"

At his words, Tzipporah grabbed me by the ear also. Miriam rubbed her scalp from the tension on their hair bridge. "Don't worry, he's not getting away with it either."

So my brother and I spent the next hour trying to fix our prank. Ok, so in hindsight it wasn't a good idea. But I would do it again if I got the chance. I have a lot of fun to catch up on.


	2. Chapter 2 - Moses

I'm not a very brave man. My whole life people have told me it's not true, that I'm chosen or whatever. Jethro gave my this immense speech about how I'm special to God, but I never took it to heart. Don't get me wrong, I love Jethro. But honestly those words went in one ear and out the other.

Anyway, I'm not brave. And meeting my brother for the first (ok, second) time, I'd never felt more cowardly. His words slapped me worse than the mud ball that knocked me over. I owe Miriam my life for having knelt in the pit beside me after my berating.

At the Nile when Aaron told me "the priests did the same thing", I was actually relieved. I didn't think he would talk to me after all I'd done (or should I say not done). But he and Miriam invited me to their home. Neither of them was married, so the "family home" could hold them both without spacial issues. With Tzipporah and I inside it got a little cramped. It didn't matter though, because we were together.

Dinner that night was very tense. No one spoke. We just stared at our bread and avoided eye contact. After having spent years having cheerful meals with Tzipporah and her family, the quiet was killing me. I'm not sure Aaron or Miriam noticed it. They were, and still are, VERY loud eaters. I could hear their teeth scrape the bread crust and the consumption of every bite. Every now and then they would pick up the crumbs from their clothes and they would eat those too. Tzipporah flashed me a look as if to ask if we should be doing the same. I shrugged lightly. It would have been clear to anyone that I did not grow up in that home.

Miriam finished her food first. "I'm going to go see if there's any water left in the wells." She said.

Aaron commented, mouth full. "Doubt it."

Tzipporah offered to go with her a bit too eagerly and Miriam abliged. So then I was alone with a man who was supposed to be my brother.

Again I felt so timid. Of course, I would not say the first words. If we were to speak at all, that would be on him. So for a while there was no noise except the chatters of animals and children playing before their mothers called them in. I wondered what it would have been like to meet our mother. Maybe someday I could ask.

As I lifted the bread to my mouth to take another bite, Aaron gripped my wrist to stop me. "Watch out." He said, taking the bread from my hand. On the other side was a locust. "Ugh, I hate these things." He plucked it off the slice and handed it back to me.

"Thanks." I muttered. I suppose my weak response was enough encouragment for him to continue.

"Is your wife from Midian?" He asked.

"Uh, yeah. Her father is actually..." I wondered for a split second if I should be sharing so much with him. "The, uh, High Priest."

"Mmm?" He muttered with a full mouth.

"Yes, he's very sweet. I still can't believe that he would take in a runaway like me."

"I remember the day you left. Pharoh was distraught."

I didn't know if he was referring to Seti or Ramses. I didn't ask. I could have guessed for myself.

Miriam and Tzipporah came back after that, speaking to one another as if they'd been familiar since birth. Later after the sun had set we went to sleep.

Hours into the night, I woke up to the Miriam shaking me. "Moses, there's a guard outside watching us. I think he's watching you."

I opened my eyes and saw my sister, brother and wife all around me. I turned to look at the door where I could presumably see the guard from the holes in it, but instead came face to face with a locust. I picked it up and turned to them. "Aaron, hold this."

He did as I said, cupping his hands and keeping it there, alive. I scurried around the room and picked up as many of those bugs that I could find, grabbing a total of 7. Together Aaron and I held the insects and, through our window, released them.

It would have been a dumb idea had I not noticed the flower (probably gifted to him by his wife) tucked into the waistband of his clothes. Naturally, the bugs flocked to him and he panicked. As quickly as he came, he left. I turned to Aaron. I was laughing and joyful at my first successful prank in years. He was smiling and slowly became happier and happier, like I watched the gloom fly off him and out the window with the locusts. In seconds, he was chuckling as hard as a man three times his size.

So yeah, that's how I got Aaron to warm up to me.


	3. Chapter 3 - Aaron

Moses and I had to wait a while before doing anymore pranking. Miriam was miffed at both of us, but got over it. Tzipporah kept Moses in trouble for a while. But hey, I guess that's married life!

Anyway, about 11 days after the hair tying Moses flew into my tent. He was shaking me and bouncing up and down excitedly. He was ready to yell but kept the tone to a whisper. "Aaron! Aaron! I just had the best idea ever! Wake up wake up wake up!"

"Mmm? Moses, is that you? What are you going on about?"

"I was-" He struggled to catch his breath. "I was down by the stream and-" He inhaled. "The women were doing laundry and I thought how funny-" For the last time he took in air. "How funny it would be if we switched their clothes up!"

I smiled. "Now, that's a good one. But won't the women be angry?"

"Only if you get caught."

I sat up and scratched my head. "If there's anything I wonder about God, it's how he could choose _you_ to lead his people."

He smirked at me. "I try not to question it."

We left for the stream where I saw the clothes, right where Moses said they'd be. Women left their finished laundry while they returned to their houses to wake their children. They would be coming back with them to bring it home. We went to work quickly.

He and I tossed dresses, robes and what-have-you to one another to shuffle it up. In the end, I would have been suprised if they ever got all their stuff back! To avoid arousing suspicion, we had put the garments which had been on top back in their place. Like the first prank, it was kind of dumb. But also like the first, it was very fun.

The next day, we realized the flaw in our plan. Miriam and Tzipporah did laundry at that part of the stream too. So what got thrown into the mess without our realizing? You guessed it. God's favorite family's robes.

Miriam put on a dress far too tight in the waist, while Tzipporah's was way too short. Moses' was my favorite. He told me that when he returned to Egypt, the people thought he looked homeless. Seeing him in another person's clothes, I understood what it must have looked like.

The man who'd worn it before him was very, very big. Also very dirty. It may as well have been washed in mud, because the stains weren't going anywhere. I myself wearing clothing waaay too long. Strange, I didn't think there were many people taller than me.

Again, Miriam was not happy with us. It didn't take long for her to put two and two together. If I were to list the top ten angriest faces I'd ever seen, the one she showed me that morning was a close second to Ramses' at the Red Sea. Moses and I ran into a crowd of people in the wrong clothes to escape her. But we were not too good at hiding and she found us. Then she proceeded to beat "Our Deliverer" with a broom handle in front of everyone. All the while shouting "You think the plagues were bad? God wishes he had half my wrath! You must feel blessed for all the years of your life spent out of my reach!".

"Ow ow ow! Miriam, you're hurting me! Come on, you're embarassing me!"

My mistake was in laughing at the spectical. My giggles attracted her attention. She grabbed me by the ear and dragged us back to the tent. Must have been quite the show for the people back there. They deserved the laugh anyway.

She tossed us in and gave us a moment to express displeasure. Then she began her rant. "You two have been a thorn in my side ever since we dragged our soggy and frightened rear-ends out of the Red Sea. I understand that there's a lot of lost time to make up for, but I, the Hebrews," She pointed to Moses. "and _YOUR_ wife have reached our limits. Next time you feel the need to goof around with us, don't!"

Miriam was walking out of the tent when she told us our punishment. "Now go help people find their clothes."


	4. Chapter 4 - Moses

After the second prank we'd pulled, it was time for the Hebrews and us to get a move on. I walked with Aaron for part of it when some mother asked Miriam and Tzipporah if they could hold her babies. It's difficult for parents to hold those squirming little bundles for the whole time.

After they fell back walk with those families, we started speaking. "So Aaron, where do we get our sense of humor from? It definitely isn't our sister."

Almost immediately, he answered me. "Our mother. She liked joking with the other women. You see, Miriam doesn't do pranks. She laughs at things that are more political."

I rose an eyebrow. "Really? You're messing with me, aren't you?"

"No! Honestly, that's her thing. When we had free time with our friends, which was not often, she would immitate the royal family for them."

I smiled, not as earnestly as I wished I could. "Yeah, like who?"

"Mostly Seti." To illistrate his point, Aaron took a rag from the cart behind us and put it on his head like a royal crown, mockingly saying "I cannot believe how long it takes for you to build MY statue! I work to make a perfect Egypt and this is all I get?"

I chuckled that time, being sympathetic with how they felt. My father was a nasty person and deserved to be made fun of. Aaron looked glad that I understood. "Anyone else?"

Aaron smiled. "You mean you?"

"I mean anyone... But did she immitate me?"

"Never. She loved you dearly since day one. Perhaps that's why she felt so bitterly to the rest of them."

The word "them" in reference to my other family made me feel gross. I muttered out a "yeah" and didn't say anything else to him. Eventually Tzipporah and Miriam came back and we discussed other things.

When it began getting dark, we made camp to sleep. Miriam approached me with a sad look on her face after the sun had gone down. "Aaron told me that you know about my jokes, and I'd like to appologize. It wasn't right of me to mock your family."

"There's no need for saying sorry. You have every right to poke fun. They _enslaved_ you, lest you forget."

"Yeah, they did. And they were awfully adiment about keeping it that way. But we owe them for keeping you safe."

"I would have been safer had Seti not put out order to-"

Miriam plugged her ears. "Ah! Shh! No. Don't say anything. I don't want to talk about that. Long story short, your mother found the kindness in her heart to save you."

"Why do you continue to refer to them like they are my actual family? I have my family now. I don't like thinking about them."

Those words made her a little angry. "Don't be ingrateful! You must be nice to both your mothers, both your fathers and both your brothers!"

She walked off, turning back to say "I really, really am sorry for having joked about them. I really am."

I sighed to myself and ran my hands through the sand. Outside, someone moved. Can't I make a mistake without having everyone know about it?


	5. Chapter 5 - Aaron

I'll admit it, I was the one listening in on their conversation. She'd really tore into him that time. I let Miriam get a head start to her tent before I followed. We had been pushing her (usually leinient) limits lately but she was too hard on him.

She noticed me enter and sighed, knowing what was to come. "Hi Aaron."

"Hey, I heard you talking to Moses back there."

"If you're going to ask me to take it back, I won't. Just because he has moved on to a different set of people and places doesn't mean he should forget those who took him in."

"We don't know what they were like. Perhaps they were unkind."

She gave me a sad smile. "You should have seen what I'd seen. Then you'd know. The way his mother looked at him was so gentle. She would never hurt him."

"But Seti, he was evil for sure!"

"He was no father. I bet they barely even saw him around the palace."

"And Ramses? Are you telling me that the same man who followed us to the Red Sea to slaughter us was a good brother?"

Miriam waved me away. "I'm done talking. Goodnight."

"Come on, don't be like that."

"You should go to sleep too. It's a long walk tomorrow morning."

"No, talk to me!"

"Please." She said, voice breaking.

I knelt down beside her. "Why are you sad?"

Tears started to fall from her eyes. "Because he was nice but it should have been you."

I said nothing.

"I always felt like all the dumb things they did together should have been you and him! Like when they switched the heads of the gods at the temple of Ra. Or when they knocked the nose off that monument. It should have been you! You were robbed, Aaron! Seti took our brother and kept him for his own son!" She put her head in her hands and wailed. Her cries could have woken up the whole world.

I hugged her. "I know. I wish it had been me too. But we cannot change what happened. I don't say it enough, but we really were given a miracle. That's nothing to cry over."

Her sobs shrunk into sniffles and labored breathing. "You mean it?"

"Yeah. I'm fine now. _We're_ fine now."


	6. Chapter 6 - Moses

I had started to feel a little bad about how I'd been bothering Miriam, so the next day I decided to make up for it. I would prank Aaron.

I invited her to follow me and watch. She agreed, eager to spend more time with me.

To begin with, I tied a string to a coin and laid it on the ground. I hid the string under sand but left it just visible enough for him to see. Because Aaron sets up his tent farther away from everyone I knew no one else would fall for my genius trick. After tucking ourselves safely away in a bush close by he emerged. He had the absolute worst bedhead on any man that I'd ever seen. No wonder he wanted to keep away from the crowd in the mornings.

He rubbed his eyes and yawned. The light from the coin caught his eye and he squinted. I felt cocky for a second thinking about how he would look when he saw this was a ruse.

Much to my dismay, he didn't reach down. "Uh, hello? Someone dropped a coin!" He called.

My jaw dropped. Was he seriously not going to take it?

He put his hands up to his mouth so his voice could boom. "Did anyone drop their money? It's over here!"

He looked around for a second before giving up and leaving. The coin was untouched. Miriam and I crawled out.

"He didn't even pick it up." I said.

"That's Aaron. He's negative but his actions are moral." She told me.

I scratched my head. "Well, that's fine. There are other ways to go about this."

After rattling off a few ideas, we found one that HAD to get him. Miriam knew a man whose feet were very small. Not even the littlest woman could slip into his sandals. Aaron, on the other hand, had clodhoppers. We devised to switch their shoes (with permission of the tiny one) and watch him try to figure out what was wrong.

The idea was flawless, and we set ourselves up again in the same bush to watch him. We heard him ask questions to himself, like "where did these come from?" and "did I shrink?". After a few minutes of this, he came from his tent barefoot. And guess what? He was HOLDING THE SHOES, calling for the "child" whose sandals ended up in his tent. He would just return them!

He left for the village, leaving us to be amazed among ourselves. "Really Miriam? He's not even going to wonder why a stranger's shoes are by his bed?"

"I'm telling you, he cannot be pranked."

"One more try! Please come along one more time and I'll prove it!"

She obliged and I dug deep to imagine how I might go about that. I eventually concocted a plan to attack one thing he loved greatly; sleep. I would shorten his bedsheets to never fit over his feet, so he would have to go find another set when he is tired.

We created the props and set them up. As usual, we hid in the bush (in the evening this time). He came into his tent, sleepy and ready to rest. He crawled into bed and pulled up the sheets which ended, as planned, to his ankles. We heard a loud, frustrated sigh. He opened the flaps and launched the wrapped up linens at the shrub we squatted in. "It was funny the first two times, Moses. Go get me new blankets."


End file.
